Charlotte and team were exceptional!-- Dianne & John Ambrose

According to a report by NerdWallet people with low credit scores pay an average of $1,270 extra per year in car insurance, but it depends on the state. Most states allow auto insurers to base rates on credit information, but California, Massachusetts, and Hawaii have banned this practice.

Lucky for us, Idaho ranked 13th lowest increase. The annual price increase for poor credit was only $824, with a monthly increase of $69.

​To prevent this increase, its important to take care of your credit. Some helpful hints include

1. Pay all of your bills on time2. Pay off credit cards and debt3. Keep credit cards under 30% the limit.

Idaho has failed to expand healthcare to 35,000-62,000 Idahoans for the 6th row in a year. This expansion would help Idahoans in "the gap", where they make too much for MedicAid and too little to qualify for subsidized privatized health insurance.

Idaho has tried to come up with ways around it to come up with an "Idaho solution", but all have proved fruitless. The most recent example was Butch Otter's health insurance plans that wouldn't have been beholden to the ACA. Despite Idaho's attempt being struck down by the White House, many are pointing to it's suggesting a revised version of the law to be the light at the end of the tunnel. However, this plan, if widespread, would still would have major problems for those in the gap that have medical needs. Insurance would be impractically expensive.

Idaho hasn't passed anything as of yet, and not for a lack of trying. This year alone the state house of representatives has refused to do anything twice. Rep. Christy Perry from Nampa, after the push failed for the 2nd time, said “I have been all but spit on in this body for bringing it back”, and will not be running for her office again, due to her difficulties getting anything done. With the elections coming up, Rep. Ilana Rubel implied that many may be continuing to put off a vote until next year so that representatives could focus on their campaigns. To that, Rep. Margie Gannon of St. Maries said, “If you’re that worried that your vote is going to look bad somewhere, maybe you need to rethink your vote.”

For now, Idaho remains a state with one of the biggest gaps between MedicAid and subsidized privatized health insurance. Will this change any year soon? Time will tell.

​More than 100 advocates have gathered at the Idaho capitol today from the "CLose the Gap" movement.

They demanded that the lawmakers address Idaho's under and uninsured problem. They want to expand health care coverage to 35,000+ citizens of Idaho, lower premiums for those already covered, and expand MedicAid.

The bill which they were supporting has already been deemed dead this year due to lack of support among Republican lawmakers.

President Trump has given his nod of approval to Idaho's insurance experiment. He has allowed insurance companies to sell less comprehensive, limited duration (12 months) plans that don't meet the ACA standards for lower costs. Some changes to these types plans may include discriminating based on pre-existing conditions, re-implementing annual coverage caps, and charging more for the sick.

This solution for the healthy isn't without worry, though. If enough people abandon the ACA healthcare plans, rates may sky rocket for those who stay. This would be particularly difficult for those with many medical needs, as the ACA was set up as a way to help those people. These new plans may also not cover basic things like cancer treatment, preventative care, or materinity care.

This is a big step in the Republicans' quest to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Where and what will the next step be? Check back here for updates!

Blue Cross of Idaho has decided to take Governor Butch Otter up on his unprecedented challenge to the ACA. They are adding 5 new plans to their line up called "Freedom Blue". The prices will differ based on health, and the healthier you are the less it will cost. They claim that the cost could be up to 50% less than ACA plans.

Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase are teaming up to make a new company! This company's goal is to reduce emplyee healthcare costs, because they believe that the current private insurance system is like “a hungry tapeworm on the American economy”. They will be looking at technological solutions to lower the costs.

They will be doing all this while vowing that the company will be “free from profit-making incentives and constraints”. By doing this, they cut out what is wrong with the current healthcare system: greed.

The State of Idaho Department of Insurance released a new policy that would allow insurance providers to ignore some Affordable Healthcare Act (ACA) rules which are not available on the marketplace. Some changes to plans may include discriminating based on pre-existing conditions, offer limited-benefit plans, re-implementing annual coverage caps, and charging more for the sick. The goal is to make state-based plans cost less. This will likely happen for the healthy, but the cost for the sick may make healthcare impractical or impossible.

This is an unprecedented challenge to the ACA. No one quite knows what is going to happen. Many critics are saying that it is illegal. One law professor even describing the attempt as "crazypants illegal" . The Republican-controlled federal government might just decide not to enforce this law anymore and leave Idaho unchallenged.

The real question is whether or not insurance providers will take the bite. The ACA fines companies $100 per day per violation. This could be an impractical business move for insurance providers if the federal government decides to enforce the ACA.

The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) give eligible children health coverage through both Medicaid. CHIP has some federal requirements, but is administered by states and funded by both levels of government.

Renewing this program was what brought the end of the government shutdown. This program is now funded for the next 6 years!

In 2017 12.2% of Americans (3.2 million) did not have health insurance, a 1.3% increase from 2016. This is the largest jump in uninsured since these numbers started being tracked in 2008.

There could be a number of reasons for this. Some say it is because insurance providers are pulling out of the ACA marketplace. Others say it is because of the uncertainty of the future of the ACA. Yet others believe that Trump has already repealed it.

One thing that is commonly consented on is these numbers are likely to raise.

Next month Oregonians will have a vote; to tax insurance companies (and some hospitals) in hopes to stabalize rising premium costs or not in hopes that the low-income and disabled will be able to more readily afford healthcare.

Some are arguing that this will shift the cost to consumers. Some say that by not passing this bill medicare will be adversely affected. One thing is for sure: if the state votes "yes", they'll be looking for new ways to make up that lost revenue, and Oregon could be looking at a sales tax.

There is bipartisan support for the bill. Senate President Peter Courtney, a Democrat, and Ted Ferrioli who was the Senate Republican Leader until November, are both in support of it. They agree that its not often you see bipartisan support, but this is one of those times.

At $207 per share in cash and stock, Aetna's board of directors approved the sale of their company to CVS Health Corp. Share holders, however, will only be getting $145 for each of their shares, and the rest will be made up in CVS shares. THis will mean Aetna shareholders will own roughly 22% of the CVS.

This will be the year's largest corporate acquisition in the healthcare world. Many are saying that this will allow them to negotiate lower drug prices. Others are denouncing this sale as a move towards monopoly with this vertical merger. Regardless of what others think, the company is planning on investing billions in clinics and services.

A stipulation of getting a car loan from Wells Fargo is that you have car insurance. If you don't buy it yourself, the bank would then buy it for you and charge you. In an ideal world this would be ok, but this is far from an ideal world. Due to a mistake by Wells Fargo, 570,000-800,000 people from 2012-2017 were charged for insurance even though they already had it. 25,000 of those people ended up haiving their cars repossessed because of this mistaken charges.

Wells Fargo has had to deal with scandal after scandal, and was hoping they'd be able to improve their public image. This new scandal shows that they may have to postpone their dreams. Especially since each affected person will only recieve $140 compensation, and those who had their cars repossessed with only recieve $800.

If you need good insurance, give us a call. We will let you know exactly what you have and what you will be paying for it.

​After a partiularly bad hurricane season and an impeding winter, there's one thing that's on a lot of peoples' minds: will my insurance pay for damage casued by a storm? The short answer is "maybe".

If you have comprehensive coverage, you will almost certainly get some kind of reimbursement. Comprehensive covers things like storms, theft, and vandalism. If you have liability and/or collision coverage, you likely will not.

With how many attempts there have been, its not unreasonable to think its the unrepealable bill! However, that's not stopping more attempts. The most recent attempt is within the upcoming tax bill. Unsurprisingly, Senators Ted Cruz and Mark Meadows were particularly anxious to get the repeal as a rider into the tax bill. This enthusiasm was seemingly supported by President Trump.

Some experts are saying that this repeal could mean 15 million people would lose coverage. This would save the federal government about $400 billion in the long run. Something that is very attractive to other Republican conservatives.

However, many senators like Orrin Hatch aren't thrilled with the idea of mingling tax reform with healthcare.

Time will only tell if this will finally be the repeal that the Republicans have so desperately been looking for.

His speech emphasized the need to eliminate heroin routes coming in from Mexico, while ignoring the fact that the majority of the deaths from completely legal prescription opioid painkillers. In 2015 alone, 12,990 died from heroin overdose and an astounding 20,101 died from prescription medications.

Trump has miles of red tape to cut through, but he's hopeful that a robust advertisement campaign will be able to recede the flood waters.

Whatever the avenue to stop the abuse and resulting deaths from all opioids take is a step in the right direction.

​A week ago, trump announced he was cutting off subsidies to health insurance. However, Senators Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray have a tentative plan to still fund subsidies for the ACA for another 2 years.

This isn't to say that the ACA will be staying for 2 years, it may not. However, we don't have to worry about the subsidies not being funded.

“Over the coming weeks and months, we are committed to holding congressional hearings and working with our nations’ governors who believe returning power to states is a vast improvement over Obamacare”

The fate of the American healthcare system is still uncertain. Stay tuned here for more information as it develops!

​This year has been a real nail-biter for healthcare. The Republicans have vowed to repeal and replace, but have not been united in their method of how to do that. Senators Bill Cassidy and Lindsey Graham recently proposed bill they had hoped would be the one that finally does it.

Jimmy Kimmel, who's son recently has had multiple open heart surgeries, has been an outspoken supporter of quality health coverage. Bill Cassidy recognized that and made an appearance on Kimmel's show where he came up with the "Jimmy Kimmel test". He said that any bill he supports would do 4 things:

1. Coverage for all2. No discrimination based on pre-existing conditions3. Lower premiums for middle class families4. No lifetime caps

While its great he promised that, the actual bill he proposed has a major stipulation that makes it a bit of a moot promise. The proposed bill gives the states the right to decide to what level this is true. This means that a state could choose to have none of these.

This wasn't the only problem. Arizona senator John McCain said this in regards to the bill when he voted against it:

"I cannot in good conscience vote for the Graham-Cassidy proposal. I believe we could do better working together, Republicans and Democrats, and have not yet really tried. Nor could I support it without knowing how much it will cost, how it will (affect) insurance premiums, and how many people will be helped or hurt by it. Without a full CBO score, which won't be available by the end of the month, we won't have reliable answers to any of those questions."

Other key senators, like Rand Paul and Susan Collins have also expressed the same concerns about the bill as Sen. McCain, and will likely vote no for the same reasons.

It's nearly been a year since the election and the Republicans' mission of repealing and replacing still has no end in sight. Time will tell exactly what will happen with healthcare, but one thing is clear now: many our representatives on both side of the aisle want to improve our healthcare system, while only propose lame duck bills.

Seven states -- Alaska, Alabama, Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wyoming -- will likely have one Healthcare Marketplace carrier in 2017. The number of states will likely climb.

Also, more than half of the country -- 55% -- may end up having two or less insurers to choose from on those government-run exchanges.

The research by the Avalere consultancy comes on the heels of announcements by three major insurers — Aetna (AET), UnitedHealth (UNH), and Humana (HUM) — will sharply reduce the number of areas where they will sell individual health plans in 2017.

There are several reasons:

Financial losses on those plans.

Failures of most Obamacare co-op insurance plans.

Lower-than-expected enrollment

Consumers who are costing insurers a lot in health-care benefits, and

Troubled programs that were intended to reduce the risks insurers face

On Monday, the IRS released draft instructions for Forms 1094-C and 1095-C, following the release late last month of new draft 2016 Forms 1094-B and 1095-B and Forms 1094-C and 1095-C.

This year's draft instructions make minor adjustments to last year's instructions, including reflecting that the good faith compliance standard applicable to 2015 forms no longer applies for 2016 ACA reporting and that reporting penalties will only be waived by showing reasonable cause.

They also reflect that some transition relief is no longer applicable, including that non-calendar year transition relief (for 2014 plan years) from 2015 does not apply in 2016, and that the Section 4980H Transition Relief, which reduced the 95% threshold to 70% for other ALEs, is only applicable to non-calendar year plans though the end of the plan year ending in 2016.

If filing by paper, forms must be filed by February 28, 2017If filed electronically, forms must be filed by March 31, 2017Each Employee's form must be mailed to them by January 31, 2017

BOISE ID (August 9, 2016) – The Idaho Department of Insurance has been made aware of a possible scam by a company using deceptive practices to market health insurance in Idaho. Your Health Idaho, Idaho’s health insurance exchange, has received complaints from consumers about an organization called National Enrollment Center. Multiple attempts to contact the company went unanswered or were disconnected.

“We don’t really know what type of health insurance they are selling,” says Consumer Services Bureau Chief Elaine Mellon. “When pressed for details about what company they sell for, what type of insurance they are selling, or licensing information, they hang up.”

The Department of Insurance has a list of tips and information for consumers who are contacted by anyone attempting to sell insurance:

Open enrollment for health insurance will run November 1, 2016 through January 31, 2017 – no special “state enrollment period” for individual health insurance exists. Anyone offering insurance plans through an “enrollment period” outside of open enrollment is not selling an ACA-compliant policy.

No one offering ACA-compliant health care coverage will ask if you have a pre-existing condition.

The federal government will not call you to sell you health insurance. Be wary of telemarketers from the “National Enrollment Center,” “National Healthcare Center,” or other official-sounding names.

Never provide bank account or health information or agree to any request to send money over the phone. If you are being pressured to provide this information, hang up.

Purchase insurance only from a licensed agent. Ask agents for their license number and verify licensure by calling the Department or visiting the website, www.doi.idaho.gov. If a person refuses to provide licensing information, hang up.

If you receive a sales call from someone selling health insurance, ask the caller to send you information in writing about the policy, including premiums. If they refuse, hang up.

People with questions about this or other insurance-related topics are encouraged to contact the Idaho Department of Insurance by visiting www.doi.idaho.gov or by calling 334-4250 in the Boise area or 800-721-3272 toll-free statewide.

The Hill reports the failure of most of the Affordable Care Act’s co-ops “is disrupting coverage for thousands of enrollees and raising questions about whether regulators could have acted earlier to head off some of the problems.”

Four of them have failed so far this year.

The article says the Obama Administration admits the co-ops are having issues. Examples:

In March, CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt told a Senate hearing that “a co-op in Iowa and Nebraska, called CoOportunity, should have been shut down before it entered 2015.”

“Connecticut’s insurance department...said that its commissioner, as well as officials from other states, ‘personally met with HHS Secretary [Sylvia] Burwell to seek a more workable’ system,” but no solution has been reached.

Thousands of Ohio residents are being forced to find new health coverage because their insurer, InHealth Mutual, one of the Affordable Care Act’s co-ops, is being liquidated. InHealth Mutual provided coverage for about 22,000 Ohioans, who may have to pay higher premiums for new plans.